TWO unusual things happened here at London's Queen's Club yesterday; one, the sunshine came out and stayed for a couple of hours; and two, Ivan Lendl smiled.

Perhaps the two were connected but Lendl will have been more pleased with the way his old – and new – charge, Andy Murray, coped with a very testing opponent in Nicolas Mahut as he opened his Aegon Championships title defence with a good win.

His 7-6, 7-6 victory was not without alarms – the four-time champion was a break down in each set and had to save set points in both – but the Scot will have been pleased how he adjusted to the lush grass, coming off six weeks on clay.

“It was a good win,” said Murray. “Nicolas is a very good grass-court player, coming off winning an event just yesterday. So he's confident and has played a lot on the grass.

“I haven't really hit many balls on the grass the last few days and there's been very little, limited movement, not being able to play any points really at all.

“So to get a win against a player as good as him on grass, with not loads of preparation, is a good win."

After two years apart, Murray and Lendl were quickly back in the old routine, the former world No 1 on the practice court, with lots of pointing and gesticulating to let anyone who was there to watch know exactly who is the boss.

The eight-times grand slam champion then took his seat alongside Murray’s full-time coach, Jamie Delgado, in the Team Murray box while the world No 2 was focused on an opponent to whom he lost here four years ago.

At 34, Mahut is one of the oldest players on Tour but he still knows his way around a grass court, serving and volleying beautifully and putting Murray under pressure at every opportunity.

The Frenchman broke first to lead 3-2 but was quickly pegged back and Murray then won a tense tie-break 10-8 to move ahead, saving one set point in the process.

Mahut looked set to take it to a decider when he raced to a 5-2 lead but Murray raised his intensity to break back and then, having saved three set points when serving at 5-6, took the second tie-break 7-1 to clinch a satisfying win.

Murray said Lendl had already slipped back into the groove.

“It's great to have him back as part of the team,” he said. “When we were chatting before the match, it didn't feel strange.

“It felt like it did before. I think it's a positive thing. It will be good to get a proper practice session in (today) and hopefully get a few hours on the court and work on a few things.

"I expect Ivan to have a positive impact on me and my whole team. I trust and believe in what he says, and that can obviously help immediately. But ultimately it's up to me to perform on the court."

Murray’s next opponent will be Aljaz Bedene, who enjoyed a fine 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win over Frenchman Benoit Paire, ranked 35 places above him at No 23, in a match that finished at just before 9.15pm.

Murray and Bedene have trained together frequently over the past year but tomorrow’s second-round match will be the first time since 2006, when he beat Tim Henman in Bangkok, that the Scot has faced a fellow British player.

Dan Evans’ match with Gilles Simon was held over until today but James Ward was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

Stan Wawrinka, with new coaching consultant Richard Krajicek in tow, found the grass a little too slippery for his liking and was beaten 6-2, 7-6 by Fernando Verdasco.

And Milos Raonic, with John McEnroe in his camp for the first time on grass, was level at one set all with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios when the match was suspended due to darkness.

Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova will learn her fate by July 18 at the latest after the Russian formally filed her appeal against a two-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The Russian’s lawyers are hoping for either an annulment or reduction of the ban, which was given after the 29-year-old tested positive for the banned drug meldonium this year.

Sharapova admitted to taking the drug, but said she was not aware it had been added to the banned list on January 1 and her lawyers argue she was harshly punished because of her fame.

Murray said his thoughts had not changed much since Sharapova first announced she had failed a test in March.

“I feel like if you're cheating or caught and gaining advantage on your opponents, then obviously you have to be punished for that,” he said.

“It's not (about) what's fair or not in terms of time. That's up for the governing bodies, the courts and lawyers to decide.”